“Competition is intense and expected to continue to increase,”
Wu said. “But China has made great progress in a wide range of
high performance pigments, including pearl pigment.”
According to Bob Poemer, business unit leader, Heucotech,
they have seen improvement, albeit very slight. Poemer said that
although the market has shown signs of progress, there is still a
long way to go before it reaches pre-recession levels.
“Due to continued although
slow growth in the economy,
we continue to see a positive
upswing in the HP and special
effect pigments market in 2013.”
“The overall gain is probably only in the one to two percent
range,” Poemer said. “The construction industry has started to
show some signs of life but still has a long way to go to reach
2006-2007 levels This is a market where HPP pigments are not
used in any substantial quantity so there are opportunities for
HPPs, particularly for high-end applications. The auto refinish
market has been essentially flat. The auto OEM market has al-
most regained 2006-2007 levels, so continued growth in this are
will be more along the lines of GDP.”
Maria Giannobile, marketing manager, Pigments &
Colorants, Dispersions & Pigments Division, North America,
BASF Corporation, said that despite challenges and unpredict-
ability of HPPs, BASF has seen a slight improvement in overall
demand in comparison to last year.
“Market demand continues to vacillate as it is inherently
correlated with the global economy, and tied to critical segments
such as automotive, housing and durable goods,” Giannobile
said. “Overall, we remain cautiously optimistic regarding the
business outlook as we continue to improve upon our position
by utilizing our broad portfolio.”
China Continues to be a Major Consumer
China has emerged as a major consumer of high performance
and special effects pigments, and is seen as one of the markets
where per capital gross domestic product is expected to rapidly
grow, according to Heitzman.
“Related to the GDP of the emerging markets of China, India
and Eastern Europe will be the growth in the demand for high
performance and effect pigments for the coatings of durable
goods, buildings, and the automotive sector,” said Heitzman.
“Sun Chemical and its parent company, DIC, have a strong
manufacturing, technical support, sales and distribution pres-
ence in China and have the capability to supply pigments to
global multi-national and local Chinese coatings customers.”
Poemer explained that in 2009, Heubach established
Hangzhou Heubach Pigment Ltd., located in close proximity
to Shanghai.
Increase in Raw Material Prices and
Advantages of HPP
Although the price of raw materials has increased, and continues to do so, Poemer said that so far this year Heubach has not
seen an upward pressure on raw materials that they have seen
in previous years.
Likewise, Wu said that Trust Chem did not see the increase
in prices of raw material as the biggest challenge, but instead in
how to deal with the unstable raw material price and supply,
particularly in China.
“Due to the growing environment pressure from the Chinese
government, many raw materials factories have shut down,
which causes an unsteady raw material factories have shut
down, which causes an unsteady raw material price,” Wu said.
To respond to this challenge, Trust Chem continues to backward integrate the production of intermediates and try to produce many of the key intermediates themselves.
Heitzman explained that the volatility of the market has
made it difficult for Sun Chemical to insulate customers from
the rise of raw materials costs. Sun Chemical continues to monitor the key raw material indexes and focus their manufacturing
team on process and raw material productivity. They also use
their global reach which provides the flexibility and stability to
minimize impact on raw material increases.
New High Performance Pigments and
Applications
High performance pigments have many advantages. Due to the
added cost associated with them, these types of products must
in turn offer users a wide variety of performance features.
“High performance pigments are broadly defined and can
include improved performance in multiple areas versus con-
ventional pigments,” Poemer said. “Some of these performance
properties can include improved light fastness, chemical resis-
tance, thermal stability and either excellent transparency or
opacity depending on the application. Pricing differentials for
HPP’s are smaller now than in the past which increases the over-
all potential for them to be used in demanding applications.”
Giannobile explained that the performance of a pigment is de-
pendent on the application conditions and the end use requirements.
“The benefits of using high performance pigments include enhanced durability, color strength, opacity and higher
hiding,” she said. “For special effect pigments, exceptional
34 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
August 2013
